Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The First Annual Hell's Kitchen Film Festival will offer a rare chance to see Ken Park...

Producers’ Club owners and New York Hell’s Kitchen Film Festival (NYHKFF) co-founders Alfred and Ernest Tollja proudly announce the full lineup for the Manhattan neighborhood’s first film foray. NYHKFF will host over 140 features and shorts during the 10 days, including a special 10th Anniversary Retrospective Gala of Larry Clark’s rarely screened film Ken Park. The famed director will be in attendance with actress Tiffany Limos for a Q&A following the screening on Friday, Sept. 2 at 7:30pm.

Closing the festival is the World Premiere of director Craig Viveiros’ film Lost in Italy, starring Glen Murphy (“London’s Burning,” “Doctor Who”) and Ray Winstone (The Departed, Martin Scorcese’s upcoming Hugo). The previously announced Opening Night film is the New York premiere of Jay Duplass’ documentary debut Kevin. The screening will be followed with a performance from film subject Kevin Gant, and a Q&A with Duplass and Gant moderated by IFC.com On-air Host/Writer Matt Singer. The centerpiece film is Josh Hyde’s Peruvian drama Postales, an Official Selection at the Edinburgh and Shanghai International Film Festivals.

In addition to numerous premieres, NYHKFF devised a number of exciting panels to provide a unique opportunity for festival goers to hear insightful discussions from a variety of film industry experts. Among these is a special live recording of Operation Kino, the popular weekly movies and pop culture podcast from Katey Rich (Editor and Chief of Cinemablend.com), Matt Patches (Movies Editor of Hollywood.com), David Ehrlich (Criterion Corner, Movies.com) and Da7e Gonzales (LatinoReview.com). Anyone can join the specially formatted “Film Court” show featuring three debates about film topics, tidbits, prizes and the ever-popular Lightning Round. (Find more Operation Kino at OpKino.com and on Twitter at @OpKino.)

NYHKFF has also assembled two teams of film pros from New York and Los Angeles to hash out which of the two film capitols reigns supreme. Team NYC (The AV Club writer Alison Willmore & Fangoria contributing editor Samuel Zimmerman) will square off for five rounds with Team LA (MSN Movies and Film School Rejects contributor Kate Erbland and former Gordon and the Whale soundtrack editor Allison Loring). Moderator John Lichman (co-host, Grassroots Podcast) will be in the thick of it to drop some REFEREEBOMBS as teams discuss each city’s differences for filmgoers, film writers, and filmmakers.

The Producers’ Club Theaters are at 358 West 44 St. between 8th and 9th Avenue. In addition, the 11-day festival—which will screen a wide array of new U.S. indies, foreign language films, shorts and student films—will host filmmaking panels and nightly after-parties at the in-house Producers’ Club bar/lounge. The full schedule of films and events can be found at www.hellskitchenfilm.com. Tickets can be purchased starting Wednesday, August 24th, online or on site at The Producer’s Club Theaters.

-Joey's Two Cents: It's a quick train ride for me, so I might be checking it out...thoughts?